Kandiyohi County Landfill Leachate Treatment System

Kandiyohi County had been trucking more than three million gallons of raw leachate to the City of Willmar’s wastewater treatment plant for treatment and disposal. This approach was costly and not environmentally sustainable, so the County continued to consider other viable and sustainable options. The City’s wastewater treatment plant, like many treatment plants locally, nationally, and internationally, did not have the capability to treat some of the contaminants (PFCs, heavy metals, etc.) in the leachate. As a result, the contaminants are simply diluted and discharged into Minnesota’s waterways. Clark Engineering presented a new technology for solving this problem by providing on-site leachate treatment.

Clark Engineering team members provided a demonstration, followed by an engineering study, with our single-pass membrane system called the LeachBuster®, to better define how this system would work in solving Kandiyohi County’s landfill leachate problem with reasonable physical infrastructure costs. The LeachBuster® system is a patent-pending technology solution and an innovative development for which Clark holds the patent. The LeachBuster® system treats the landfill leachate and produces treated leachate that meets the National Drinking Water Standard and concentrated contaminants. The inert leachate waste product concentrate is returned to the landfill and the treated leachate, effluent, or clean water is discharged into a sedimentation basin. This treatment approach mitigates the need to transport the toxic leachate. The technology has been embraced by the National Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) as the effluent meets the Primary Drinking Water Standard.